A Nottingham Crown Court jury found Michael Thompson, 56, guilty of raping and murdering his estranged wife, Kimberley, and staging her death to look like suicide.
Michael Thompson, 56, has been found guilty of raping and murdering his estranged wife, Kimberley Thompson, 43, following a six-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court. According to a Northamptonshire Police press release and the BBC, jurors returned their verdict on Wednesday and also convicted Thompson on two counts of perverting the course of justice, over his attempts to conceal both the rape and the murder.
Detective Chief Inspector Torie Harrison, who led the investigation, said it had become clear that Kimberley had experienced domestic abuse for much of her relationship with Thompson, involving a pattern of “manipulation, coercive control and physical violence.” Harrison said that after the couple separated, friends and family had begun to see Kimberley regain the confidence and enthusiasm for life that had gradually been eroded during the marriage.
Prosecutors told the court that Thompson raped and suffocated Kimberley at some point between midnight and 3.30am on 9 August 2025, at the home in Northampton where the couple had continued living together, two years after their separation. The pair had been married for 19 years and were going through divorce proceedings; Kimberley had begun a new relationship, was preparing to move out and had asked for around £65,000 as part of the settlement, according to the BBC and Northamptonshire Police.
In the aftermath, Thompson staged Kimberley’s bedroom to make her death appear to be suicide, sent messages from her social media accounts and telephoned the East Midlands Ambulance Service at around 5.30am, the police press release said. Authorities were initially told that Kimberley had taken alcohol and tablets before being found unresponsive, the BBC reported, but a post-mortem examination later found no alcohol in her system, with only low levels of caffeine, paracetamol and codeine present.
Kimberley’s family and friends told investigators they did not believe she had taken her own life and described a history of domestic abuse within the marriage, prompting Northamptonshire Police to launch a murder investigation on 12 August.
The investigation also found that Kimberley had contacted a domestic abuse support service in 2013 but later withdrew her complaint, out of fear of what might happen if she reported the abuse, Northamptonshire Police said.
Thompson is due to be sentenced next week, the BBC reported.
